Weekend Getaways - MGolka's 2022 In Review

Hey all, I've hinted at it over the course of many small updates throughout the year at various facilities around the country, but here it finally begins, my year end review of a good amount of zoos or aquariums throughout the year. If you've paid attention to the board this past year, you might have a good idea of the places I've been, if not, then you will have to stay tuned to see where I've ventured!

Before I start, I wanted to say that a couple members on this site have inspired me to finally post my thoughts about various places. Before I would just lurk and visit new places and keep my thoughts to myself. However, seeing the various trip reports from the likes of @snowleopard, @Coelacanth18, @Milwaukee Man, @birdsandbats, @pachyderm pro and tons of others (I apologize if you were not mentioned, I've most certainly read your trip report if you've posted one), I've finally brought myself to formally put one together this year. This year I've visited around 15 zoos outside of my normal Omaha Metro area on various weekends (or sometimes mid-week). They range from mega-zoos to small facilities, and a place that most of us thank @snowleopard and @TinoPup for visiting so we don't have to.

While this year added some new places to my travels, I want to start by going over some of the places I've been the past two years that I've been on this site. Before I joined this forum, I have always loved zoos and would be the person to drag my family on vacations to the local zoo wherever we were. It wasn't until I met my wife, who loves zoos and animals as much as I do, that we joked about visiting almost every zoo in the country together that my travels to other zoos really took off. If it wasn't for COVID, I might not have stumbled upon this website, as I came here for updates on which zoos were open, or when they planned on re-opening and found a bunch of people that were just as interested in zoos as I was. Reading about others' trips that more or less focused on visiting zoos made me realize that I wasn't alone in how I much I would love to do that. Sure, I've been to my fair share of places during my lifetime before 2020, but it wasn't until then that I've rapidly increased the places I've been to. Mainly because I found someone that wanted to go on these adventures just as much as I have.

Just to give you an idea of the number of places I've visited in 2020 and 2021, here are my past two years of zoos or aquariums that I've been to (a star indicates a place I hadn't been to before):

2020
Kansas City Zoo
Dickerson Park Zoo* - Springfield, MO
Wonders of Wildlife Aquarium* - Springfield, MO
Blank Park Zoo* - Des Moines, IA
Riverside Discovery Center - Scottsbluff, NE
Lincoln Children's Zoo - Lincoln, NE
Great Plains Zoo* - Sioux Falls, SD
Bramble Park Zoo* - Watertown, SD
San Diego Zoo Safari Park
San Diego Zoo

2021
National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium* - Dubuque, IA
Audubon Zoo* - New Orleans, LA
Audubon Aquarium* - New Orleans, LA
Topeka Zoo*
David Traylor Zoo* - Emporia, KS
Kansas City Zoo
Saint Louis Zoo
Memphis Zoo*
Stone Zoo* - Stoneham, MA
Franklin Park Zoo* - Boston, MA
New England Aquarium* - Boston, MA
Lincoln Children's Zoo - Lincoln, NE
Disney's Animal Kingdom - Lake Buena Vista, FL

So pretty well traveled the past two years, but this year greatly added to the list, as well as made some return trips to places I haven't been in over 20 years, and some other favorites make a reappearance.

Over the course of this thread, I will sprinkle in some additional places that my wife and I ventured, as we also experienced some other local attractions while we were out and about. I hope to get most of my reviews posted by the end of the year, but we will see! Hope you stay tuned and I look forward to any discussions that pop up throughout! (I know one place I've been to has been the topic of many debates and frequents the Hot Take thread every so often!)

 

This is going to be a fantastic thread to end off one year and blend into another. It's like an early Christmas present!

 

First Stop - Rolling Hills Zoo

Near the start of last year, my spouse and I sat down to discuss what weekends and trips we were thinking about so we could block out the dates on the calendar as anyone who is used to "adulting" knows that your calendar fills in fast. Well one of our first getaway weekends we planned was Easter weekend. Usually, we spend this time with family, however our families were both traveling to other places to visit our siblings that are in faraway places (yes, sometimes I consider Iowa a faraway place ).

With no family obligation this Easter, we looked at places we could drive to pretty easily for a quick weekend trip without having to log a ton of hours in the car. We identified the Manhattan/Salina, KS area since we could knock out two zoos that we had not been to before. Granted, when we were looking at the weather in mid-April in the Omaha Metro and surrounding area, it was a lot warmer than what we encountered in north central Kansas!

We proceeded to drive down Friday night and stay at the very nice Hilton Garden Inn near the Manhattan Town Center at the southeast corner of the city. This seemingly redeveloped portion of town is full of museums and science centers and tons of shopping and dining venues. And the biggest plus, is directly off the main highway that makes getting in and out of town super easy.

As we made the bulk of the journey on Friday night, we decided to hit up the Rolling Hills Zoo near Salina on Saturday so out drive Sunday back to Omaha would be shorter. So Saturday morning we headed off to Salina, about an hour drive to the west of Manhattan so we would be at the zoo near the time of opening.

Now I must clarify that the Rolling Hills Zoo is NEAR Salina. NOT in Salina. In reality, they are located a little over 6 miles outside of Salina and more appropriately, in Hedville, KS. For those of you who have never traveled in rural America, I must tell you that Hedville barely even constitutes as a village. The village of Hedville has about 4 streets and consists of maybe 30 buildings tops. I can see why the zoo markets themselves as part of "Salina" otherwise many folks would have no idea where it is located, and that would most certainly apply to those that are from Kansas.

However, once we got to the zoo itself, and the chilly April day we chose to visit, we had a splendid visit. As @snowleopard mentions in his review from his visit years ago, there were not very many guests the day we were there as well. We might have encountered maybe 20 other people throughout the morning/early afternoon.



The zoo entrance varies throughout the year depending on the season, and for the most part, the main entrance is through the zoo's museum. During the summer months, there is an entrance at the north side of the parking lot (after you enter through the gates of the picture above) that puts you right at the restaurant hub area. On our visit, the museum was the way in, so we took that opportunity to first see the museum's offerings.

I must say, when entering through the museum area, I was greatly impressed with the interior (see photo below) and it was a sign of things to come of the museum itself. This entrance area has a full gift shop, restrooms, a party area, and some great sit-down areas for people to relax either out of the cold or hear depending on the season.



As for the museum portion, it was fantastic. It certainly could stand as its own attraction. There are many photos in the zoo's gallery from @snowleopard. The winding trails through the various parts of the world were very engaging, heavily decorated or themed, and many specimens that include some rare sights including Saiga and Zebra Duiker. One could certainly spend hours in the museum documenting and photographing every single species/mount in there. A link to the zoo's gallery is here, for you to check out the museum's photos and to see updated exhibit photos from my visit:

Rolling Hills Zoo Gallery

After making our way through the museum, it was time to venture out into the zoo itself. I posted some brief thoughts in the Rolling Hills Zoo thread in the forums, "Yes, some of the exhibits may seem ordinary, but they serve their purpose and it looks like the staff maintains them well. For this being out of the way, to me they have a pretty good collection of species out here."

This still holds true for me. I do like this zoo for what it is, and for a very rural zoo in the middle of Kansas, I feel they are doing a great job with what they are given. As much as all of us love zoos that put a lot of money and effort into creating vast/eye-pleasing exhibits, not all zoos are blessed to have as much funding as the Henry Doorly's, Nashville's, or Fort Worth's of the world. However, this zoo seems to be one that has a growing visitor base with their improvements to the African Lion exhibit that opened in late 2022, to which @Ituri posted some photos of the brand-new expanded habitat.

As you leave the museum building and head into the zoo, you will head north and encounter the children's zoo portion with a nicely constructed red barn area with a good number of domestics as well as a couple of eagles and hawks (in the dreaded corn crib cages). Directly across the path from this farm area is the new Pride of the Prairie African Lion exhibit. While it was under construction on my visit, the end result is a much larger lion exhibit, and the good thing is it looks like there at least is some vegetation in it. My fear of new exhibits is that while the exhibit space may be better, it comes with very young or non-existent foliage, which I will get into on my next review in this thread.

After you pass by the Pride of the Prairie, you are essentially in the zoo's massive loop around a good-sized lake. As you go counter-clockwise around the lake, you would first encounter an African Painted Dog exhibit, followed by the North American exhibits featuring Pronghorn, White-tailed Deer, White-nosed Coati, and Black-tailed Prairie Dogs. The pronghorn exhibit is nice and large but seemed a little empty as on our visit there was only a single pronghorn and a single white-tailed deer in the massive space. As for the coati exhibit, from what I could tell from research, it used to be a bear exhibit, so naturally it was a really good size for the much smaller mammal.

I want to touch on the African Painted Dog exhibit for a second as I was impressed with the exhibit design. With me being an engineer, you may find me discussing design decisions in a little bit different way than strictly "size of an exhibit". To me, there are many fascinating things that many take for granted when it comes to zoo exhibits. While the painted dog exhibit at first glance to many is just another run-of-the-mill exhibit that seems pretty standard and not noteworthy, there were a couple things that stood out to me that make this exhibit slightly different.

First, and what to me is a big difference in layout, is that the exhibit is quite long, and not very "deep". What I greatly appreciate about this is that it brings the animals closer to you as a visitor and observer while still providing enough space by having a longer space that parallels a path. How many times have you been to a zoo where the exhibit is so long and narrow, except that the narrow part is near the path and so the exhibit extends a great distance AWAY from the visitor? And naturally, the animal you are trying to view is always at the back of the exhibit and is tougher to appreciate, or if you are a normal zoogoer, you just assume the animal is off exhibit. By shortening the depth, you can create a better connection with a guest. One may argue that this can also bring unwanted stress to the inhabitant, but there are ways to mitigate this, by screening plants or other methods depending on the species.

The other thing that I was very appreciative of is that the zoo utilized a short retaining wall to bring the "floor" of the exhibit a couple feet off the visitor path level to get you closer to eye level with the animals in the habitat. You can see this in the photo below. This makes it a lot easier to photograph animals and is a nice touch. This is a small thing, but to me makes a world of difference when evaluating this enclosure.



After the North American area, there is the zoo's restaurant plaza overlooking a vast event lawn that is up against the lake in the middle of the zoo. This area is connected to the north seasonal entrance of the zoo. Continuing around the lake, you would next encounter a massive pond that has flamingo and is stocked with many Koi and other fish that love to surface and steal food away from the Koi.

As you pass by this area, you stumble upon the zoo's Big Cat area that is certainly a relic of the 90s. With this zoo opening in the late 90s, this is understandable, and has a decent collection of the usual suspects: Amur Tigers, Mountain Lions, Snow Leopard, and temporarily African Lions on my visit. These exhibits are enclosed by the black metal and grated mesh similar to the painted dog exhibit, exhibit on a much taller and larger scale. These exhibits weren't laid out as thoughtful as the painted dog exhibit, however. These exhibits have awkward viewing angles at times, especially if the viewing shelters are closed. Rounding out this area is an exhibit for Guereza Colobus monkeys before you enter the Great Apes exhibit complex.

The Great Apes complex houses Chimpanzees and Sumatran Orangutan and their enclosures are fairly utilitarian, not very eye-pleasing but are serviceable for their inhabitants. If you do not see them outdoors, you can access the indoor portion of the complex. Just to the north of the Great Apes complex, you will find some habitats for South American mammals including Maned Wolves, Giant Anteater, and Capybara. One of the highlights of the visit on this day was a Giant Anteater that decided to stick its tongue out at us! Well excuse me!



Part of this building also housed an Aardvark and then you head to the zoo's Reptile House, which I can honestly say was very well done. I see the zoo is planning on modifying the smaller terrariums in the center of this building, so I might have to upload the small terrarium photos to the gallery, at this time I have only uploaded the larger main exhibits (except for the indoor Aldabra Tortoise exhibit as a couple keepers were occupying most of it). There are some nice specimens in here including Quince Monitors, Grand Cayman Iguana, Egyptian Tortoise, and Pancake Tortoise. Really the only reptile exhibit in the building I thought could use a little modification was the Green Tree Python exhibit.

As you work your way around the lake after this point, you pass by a nice sized exhibit that used to hold Sichuan Takin and also Markhor prior to that. Sadly was unoccupied on my visit. Following this, there are nice wide-open exhibits for Dromedary and Ostrich. The Southern White Rhino barn and trio of exhibits then follows and I found them better than I anticipated. However, it seems the outdoor portion is rarely used, which is a shame. I liked that these habitat spaces were separated by big natural boulders with a more weathered wooden fence between them to give some sense of uniqueness. Luckily, you can enter the rhino barn and be extremely close to these massive grazers, which really puts how large and impressive these animals are. Also inside the rhino barn is the off-season holding for the lemur species and cotton top tamarins.



After a couple of Australian habitats with the obligatory seeming Red Kangaroos and Red-necked Wallabies, there is another large, grassy habitat for generic giraffes (also inside their viewing barn). My only real issue with this giraffe exhibit (and some others I've seen over the course of the last few years) is the real lack of any trees in the exhibit. Yes, I understand that giraffe are very destructive when it comes to trees, but it is always an awesome sight to see them amongst a group of trees (I guess Omaha spoils me in this regard).

Rounding out the zoo is a couple of standard hoofstock exhibits for Scimitar Horned Oryx and Addax, a couple of monkey islands, a large capybara exhibit complete with a large pond, and a pair of Andean Bear enclosures designed similarly to the big cat exhibits.

Again, overall a pleasant zoo, that while not having a massive amount of species, still provides a ton of space for almost all of its inhabitants. Being a rural zoo that is not surrounded by anything, they also have PLENTY of room to expand if they so choose. With this zoo starting in the late 90s, they have a really good start and base to work with and I am intrigued to see how this zoo continues to grow. Although it is one of those zoos that you don't seek out for a one-off (which we kind of did I suppose), it is certainly worth a stop if you are passing by and need to stretch the legs. It is a pretty good hike to get around this place!

 

There's good reason that, especially with large canids, you don't see narrow and long exhibits very often- and you got it right with the unwanted stress. Large canids are notorious for being easily stressed, and hiding spaces/abilities to escape from visitors is key for high welfare in these species. So while from a visitor perspective, yes, I can see the longer exhibits to be beneficial, the more traditionally laid out exhibits are significantly better from an animal welfare perspective. Ideally, in order to combat the negative side effects of this, zoos can find other ways to encourage (not require, but encourage) large canid visibility- such as strategically timed/placed feeding and enrichment, appropriately placed exhibit furniture, and, if possible, hidden viewing points where the animals can't see visitors (ex. viewing windows made of one-way glass).

The following is from the AZA's 2012 Large Canid Care Manual, discussing the privacy requirements for the large carnivores, showing the importance of hiding opportunities and limits to the area visitors can see:

"Exhibits should have public viewing access limited to no more than 50% of the circumference. Animals should be provided with options for choosing to hide or to spot 'danger' coming from a distance."

(Source: https://assets.speakcdn.com/assets/2332/large_canid_care_manual_2012r.pdf)

 

Thanks for the review of Rolling Hills Zoo, which was Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure when I visited in 2012. You are correct that the museum could stand as its own attraction, as there is a total of approximately 1,500 taxidermy specimens inside! I'm genuinely surprised that for a measly $15 it's possible to tour both the zoo and museum without any additional costs. The admission price is extremely low compared to many other American zoos.

In my review from 2012, I said that the zoo was filled with "basic structures that I would deem all perfectly adequate", but the exhibits are almost all a bit too bare for my liking. There's no sense of wanting to display the animals with style, as the ungulate paddocks are the standard size, the great apes are in big metal cages, and the carnivores are inside yet more metal cages. The Giraffe Barn is massive, but the individual stalls are not very large at all. There's a decent amount of space given over to White Rhinos and they even had an Indian Rhino a decade ago when I was there. The Reptile House is small and had around 20 species on my visit, and for a zoo that opened in 1999 I felt as if the enclosures were a bit dated.

However, you mentioned that for a rural zoo in Kansas the place is doing okay and that about sums it up. A solid, mid-tier zoo that is AZA accredited but not going to win any awards for creativity with its animal exhibits.

 

Thanks for the review of Rolling Hills! For an AZA zoo with 2 great apes, aardvark, painted dogs and several large cats it gets almost no publicity or discussion on the forum; I suspect maybe being in rural Kansas has a lot to do with it. The place has even more animals than I thought they did.

The cheapest larger zoos I've been to are in the Great Plains, so maybe it's a regional thing; I know that Oklahoma City Zoo is only $12, the Abilene Zoo is $10, Sedgwick is $15, and even Omaha is only $18 in the winter despite most of the zoo being either indoors or cold-tolerant species.

 

I absolutely feel the same way, that yes while I prefer more interesting looking exhibits, I can understand some of these smaller zoos' limitations. That's what I've found about visiting smaller collections, you have to greatly temper your expectations to where you are. I usually look at Google Earth prior to a visit to see about what it looks like from above, but since that paints mostly a 2D picture, I am more often than not pleasantly surprised when I see things for myself. I also grew up going to a pretty small zoo in my very young years, so smaller zoos are kind of dear to me, so I don't get too extremely worked up while visiting them. Except for one place I visited this year, I pretty much didn't feel good about it.

 

Where are the rolling hills? Can't see any in the background!

 

Stop Two - Sunset Zoo

On Easter Sunday, a day after stretching our legs at the pretty good sized Rolling Hills Zoo, we took in a much smaller and compact facility in Manhattan, KS, the Sunset Zoo. Again, it turned out to be a chilly day in the upper 40s and 50s but were greeted with some pretty active animals regardless. With the weather what it was, and it being a holiday to those who celebrate, we once again were two of the probably less than 10 people at the zoo on this day.

The zoo, nestled on a seeming cliff, has essentially three levels to it. The upper level consists of the main entrance and a chimpanzee complex, the middle level has a South America area, Australia walkabout, the bulk of the Expedition Asia complex, and some larger carnivore exhibits, and the lower level is made up of the older Asian exhibits that were not newly constructed as part of the Expedition Asia complex that opened in early 2022 (about a week or so before my visit).

Upon arriving at the zoo, you are greeted by an Art Deco, mid-century modern style entrance that I have to say I greatly approve of. This is not something you typically see these days, especially for something that was built in the early 2010s. I'm all about great entrances to zoos, as you all know what they say, a good first impression is worth quite a bit. However, with an entrance representing the 50s, it could give off a vibe of outdate enclosures. Well, we will get to that.



After entering the zoo, you do have access to the main office building (to the left in this photo) that has a room with ambassador animals in it. Not really much to say about the interior here, it is definitely geared to larger school groups in size and is fairly bare. Outside of this entrance plaza is a path system and overlook that you can look down upon most of the entirety of the zoo. It does provide a great view, and also lets you know up front the fairly significant grade change before you begin your trek.

I did upload exhibit photos to the gallery, and I previously uploaded photos of the new Expedition Asia area back in April after my visit, so just go past the other photos and you will find them.

Sunset Zoo Gallery

Before descending down to the middle level of the zoo, you can head toward the Sunset Zoo water tower at the north end of the zoo and you will find the "Monkeys of the Kakamega Forest" exhibit complex which housed Guereza Colobus and... Chimpanzees. One could argue that the name of the exhibit refers to only the colobus exhibit, but the two habitats share a holding building with two indoor viewing areas adjacent. While I appreciate a name that references an area of the rainforest that exists in Kenya, I feel it does a disservice to guests by using "Monkeys" in the title while housing chimpanzees. Most of us on this site have been at a zoo where apes of any kind are referred to as monkeys, and we all roll our eyes. The chimpanzee portion of the exhibit is definitely showing its age, but fear not, the zoo announced that this area will be getting a much-needed makeover in the coming years.

After seeing the Kakamega Forest area, you head back toward the south, passing a violet turaco exhibit along the way, and an upper viewing window for the expansive Cheetah exhibit. At this point, you make your way down the meandering paths or staircase to the middle tier of the zoo which houses most of the zoos exhibits.

This part of the zoo was previously a cemetery for the city of Manhattan, and you could tell it was not originally a zoo with the way some old roads converge and create a small square essentially with some old landmarks. The middle of this "square" has been converted into a Black-tailed Prairie Dog exhibit that mixes them with Turkey Vultures and Ornate Box Turtles. It is a fairly massive exhibit for prairie dogs but provides ample digging opportunities.

To the north of the prairie dog exhibit, you will find the expansive Cheetah exhibit that has some pretty good relief across the exhibit. Built into the side of the first cliff of the zoo between the upper and middle portions, this exhibit provides a lot of private space for the Cheetahs as guest viewing is pretty limited. Adjacent to the cheetah exhibit is the Spotted Hyena exhibit, featuring two hyenas with a fair amount of space. My one qualm with this habitat is the chain link fencing that made photographing the very active individuals difficult.

I will harken back to some of my comments in the Rolling Hills review, that remember this is still a fairly "rural" zoo as the City of Manhattan is called the "Little Apple" for a reason, and it is largely a college town, home of Kansas State University. Until the Expedition Asia area was built, I don't believe a ton of investment was put into this zoo over the years. However, the zoo has released a pretty extensive master plan that looks to improve the entire zoo, and I eagerly await the growth this facility is wanting to achieve.

Next to the spotted hyenas is a good-sized Australian Walkabout, the walkthrough portion was closed upon my visit. Inside you will find an enclosure for Emu, the typical Red-necked Wallabies free ranging about, and an Australian Aviary home to various Australian birds including a very gregarious black swan.

A small seasonal concession stand can be found near the Chataqua Amphitheater in the central plaza of the middle tier of the zoo, right next to the entrance of the zoo's newest renovation, Expedition Asia.



This area of the zoo is very modern, and the new portions focus on three species: Malayan Tiger, Sloth Bear, and Amur Leopard. As you can see in the gallery, most of these new enclosures are spacious, but to me they lack hardly any foliage. While the Malayan Tiger exhibit protected at least one large tree to include in the exhibit, there are new tree plantings that will take a bit to mature. This is more than can be said about the Sloth Bear and the Amur Leopard exhibits. These two habitats are almost completely devoid of any new plantings. There may be two or three young saplings total across the two and very little to no shrubbery. While there may be little to no foliage in these exhibits, the terrain changes in them make them varied to their inhabitants. The only one that doesn't have decent relief across the exhibit is the Amur Leopard exhibit that provides a climbing structure for the agile cat. This climbing structure at this time is also the only source of shade for this exhibit, so in the hot summer months I can see the leopard spending a lot of time beneath it.



The sloth bear exhibit at least provides some good "natural" enrichment opportunities with a pool, stumps, and a clay/rock dig area. The Malayan tiger exhibit mainly only has a pool while the saplings are protected at this time to grow in. Otherwise, the tiger exhibit was a nice green lawn more or less. While these three new habitats are vast upgrades over what it seems these exhibits replaced, I feel like as with most new exhibits, these will take some time to mature into really great habitats.

The Amur Leopard exhibit is the lowest of the three new habitats and is the last new one before you encounter the old portions of the zoo. The old tiger exhibits have been converted to the zoo's "Sloth Bear Reserve" that provide heavily wooded areas, mostly away from human interaction. I feel like this pair of habitats might be better for the bears at the moment until some more foliage takes hold in their new habitat. The sloth bears were not out in their new exhibit while I was at this zoo, so I was not able to see them interact with their new home, but if they are anything like Omaha's bears and their new exhibit, I could see them being shy and a little stressed from how the exhibit is laid out. I'm not too sure these older exhibits aren't better for them at the current time.



After these almost off-show habitats, you will find older grotto style exhibits for Asian small-clawed otter, red pandas, and white-handed gibbons. While these were originally housed with bears, these exhibits work for the much smaller current inhabitants. The gibbon habitat works well for them with some decent height, as the exhibit was extending up that lets guests view them from the lower or middle levels of the zoo.

The exit of the Expedition Asia complex puts you next to the Giant Anteater and Maned Wolf exhibit, with a side viewing area that has some notes about Paraguay. This exhibit is more or less grouped with the zoos South American area, having a Caribbean Flamingo aviary (netted over to allow for an unpinioned flock), Chacoan Peccaries, a waterfowl pond that has Crested Screamers, and a building that has an exhibit for Bolivian Reed Titi monkeys (also have outdoor access). There is also a side yard for Red Footed Tortoise as well. Most of these enclosures are all perfectly adequate. The only one to me that needs some work and I hope is temporary, is a very basic tank inside the rainforest exhibit building that houses a single Boa Constrictor. Next to the Titi monkey exhibit, this tank is something that looks like a pet store. Part of this building had an exhibit that was being refurbished with the viewing window covered over, and similar size to the titi monkey exhibit, so hopefully something is being improved in here.

Overall, this is a fairly pleasant little zoo that while is in need of some improvements, it seems those are on the way when looking at their master plan. Their next plan is a new chimpanzee exhibit, with an African savannah also on the way. With the way the new portion of Expedition Asia turned out, these should be pretty good improvements and vast upgrades over what the zoo currently has. It's also really neat to see the zoo use their unique terrain to provide some interesting enclosures. This zoo can be seen in around an hour or two depending on how much time you take. Again, this isn't a zoo you singularly set out to see as they don't have any rarities, but if you are like me, seeing small zoos that are genuinely trying to improve, stopping by to help support them means a lot to them, and talking with zoo staff this day, you can tell it does.

 

Does the zoo have multiple species of Bolivian titi monkeys? On their website, the scientific name for the Bolivian Reed Titi is for the Rio Beni titi monkey. I'm guessing it is just a mistake on the zoo's part.

 

That's good to hear - when I saw your photos in the gallery, I wondered if it was an older troop and the species would be phased out in the future. Hopefully they add a couple more species of monkeys when they do that upgrade - or maybe even just mix them in with the current colobus?

You're not kidding! That's one of the starkest leopard exhibits I've ever seen... and your point about the summer heat is no joke either, the Midwest can really bake in July and August.

They will be Bolivian Gray Titis (Plecturocebus donacophilus) as are nearly all titis in American zoos.

 

Thanks you in depth reviews of this unknown zoo. Sunset looks like a pretty basic facility, but you described it extremely well and put together fun read. I haven't been of course so take my opinions with a grain of salt, but the Expedition Asia complex looks... kinda bad? For the tigers and sloth bears it looks like a pretty major downgrade from their previous accommodations. They went from large forests with plenty of room to hide to much smaller, wide-open lawns. It looks like the best part of the whole area is "sloth bear reserve" which is just a repurposed enclosure that already existed. There's hardly anything going on in the new enclosures and they look extremely uninteresting by comparison. However, the theming in the visitor areas look extremely well done for a zoo of this scale.

I decided to skim the zoos master plan (which I've linked below) and it looks the place has a nice future ahead of itself. The South American complex in particular sounds rather comprehensive and I hope that will be something that comes to fruition.

https://www.sunsetzoo.com/DocumentCenter/View/1060/Master-Plan-Map

 

Heading West - Stop Three - Pueblo Zoo

After the Sunset Zoo, there was over a month gap between the next road trip was able to commence, but this next time we hit the road was over the Memorial Day weekend, as has become tradition for us to pack up the car and drive to where our hearts desire. While 2021 saw us on our way to Memphis with a pit stop in St. Louis, this year saw us head west to the mountain state of Colorado. Or should I say, "Half Mountain State" as there is an absolutely stark difference between eastern and western Colorado (very much like Oregon and Washington). I've been to Colorado many times in my lifetime, but it still always makes me laugh to drive along I-80 into Colorado from Nebraska and be greeted by... nothing. It's impossible to not quote the movie "Dumb and Dumber" and go, "I thought the Rockies would be a lot more rocky than this." Followed by, "That John Denver is full of ****!"

Nonetheless, by the time you finally approach Denver, the outlines of the Rockies become much larger in view, and you begin to drink in the beauty of this part of the country. During our stay in Colorado this weekend, we made base camp in Colorado Springs (or The Springs, as the locals say) with a family member who recently located there. This provided us a great middle point for us to cover a lot of ground over the coming days.

The first day of our journey took us south to the lesser-known Pueblo Zoo, about 45 minutes to an hour south of The Springs. Again, while this zoo is not the biggest nor full of rarities, it has been around for over a half-century (or a century depending on your source) and actually is on the National Register of Historic Places as of 1995. This zoo is fairly stagnant at the present time, as the most recent improvement is a couple exhibits for DeBrazza's Monkey, African Painted Dogs, African Crested Porcupine, and everyone's favorite, Meerkats (I kid, I kid). I will get to these later on.

This zoo does have some interesting history, as described in the zoo's history book The Pueblo Zoo Through the Years: An Inside Look by Jonnene D. McFarland and Martha M. Osborn. The book was written by two long-time employees who helped create the Pueblo Zoological Society. It is a fairly thorough account of how the zoo got started in the late 1890s, it started out as three different collections across various parks within Pueblo! Eventually they all merged at the zoo's current location. Most of the zoo's biggest projects occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, but there was a major renovation of the zoo's Animal House (built in 1940) that converted this space to "Islands of Life) in 2007.

Upon arriving at the zoo, you follow a one-way road around the park that takes you by the outer ring of the zoo, which back in time allowed you to view the many hoofstock pens that surround the south and west perimeter of the zoo. At this time, most of the views from this road are now screened by foliage. Once again, for a small zoo, the entrance is a very attractive structure that is very welcoming.



After entry, there are a couple options that stem from the main spine path that will direct you to the heart of the zoo which contains the Pioneer Ranch and Islands of Life building. Just to your left is a grouping of exhibits called "The Woods" that features mostly North American species such as Ringtail, North American Porcupine, Turkey Vultures, Great Horned Owls, and then Red Pandas. And let me tell you, this zoo has plenty of Red Pandas! They make up two separate exhibits in The Woods and still are found in yet another exhibit elsewhere in the zoo. As much talk of meerkats being pervasive these days, I feel the same about red pandas, they are everywhere. All of these exhibits in The Woods are more or less corn crib cages, but some are significantly larger than the typical corn crib cage and provide lots of climbing and perching opportunities.

Continuing to the left and the south border of the zoo you will find some wide open African paddocks that feature Grevy's Zebra, Ostrich, Speke's Gazelle, and West African Crowned Crane. There is also a habitat for Cinereous Vulture, who yes is out of place. These vultures are pinioned in a large field all to themselves. The thing about these hoofstock yards along the south and west side of the zoo, you can tell they were originally designed from viewing from the roads outside the zoo as the holding barns and shelters are almost always in your direct view from within the zoo. For instance, in the photo below of the zebra and ostrich exhibit, notice that the shelter on the left side of the picture is closer to the guest area than the "back" of the exhibit, which used to be the front of the exhibit.



After these acceptable African yards, you will encounter the EcoCenter building that was opened in 1992. This building houses an African Penguin exhibit as well as a portion that if a walk-through Rain Forest. Sadly, due to bird flu at the time of my visit, this rain forest portion was not open. I can't really comment on the building as a whole, but the African Penguin exhibit was serviceable. While not the largest and most elaborate that we see being built these days, there are plenty of nest boxes fabricated into a cliff-face and apparently have had numerous breeding success with the exhibit.

You will then rejoin the main spine path of the zoo and pass by two habitats that make up "Asian Mountain" and you will find yet another Red Panda exhibit and a Pallas' Cat exhibit. After these two habitats, you will enter Pioneer Ranch which has about 1/3 scale log cabin style buildings and features pretty much all the usual domestics. Continuing on, there are some basic Llama, Alpaca, Dromedary, and Bactrian camel yards before you reach the African Lion habitat that was constructed in 1995. The exhibit itself is fine with good space for three lions, very reminiscent of typical big cat builds in the 90s, and pretty limited viewing areas as the exhibit is surrounded by some dense foliage. Near the lion exhibit, the aforementioned newer complex for painted dogs and DeBrazza's monkey was constructed post-2012 and is the newest improvement for the zoo in some time. This new complex is modern, and nothing spectacular, but serviceable.

Along the west edge of the zoo are more former hoofstock yards that now hold Emu and Red Kangaroo in their Australian Outback section of the zoo (these are not walkthrough exhibits), Sichuan Takin, and a large exhibit for Bison and Elk. Again, nothing special here and very similar to the African exhibits along the south side of the zoo. Near the Sichuan Takin exhibits, there is a small complex that is named Asian Adventure. This is very similar in layout to the painted dog complex and houses Malayan Sun Bear, White-handed Gibbon, and Reeves' Muntjac. Scattered in smaller exhibits around the Bison and Elk exhibit, you can find habitats for Swift Fox and Black-tailed prairie dogs.

Heading back toward the front of the zoo, you will encounter the old Animal House building that was constructed in 1940 and repurposed in 2007 as noted above to Islands of Life. I greatly enjoyed this building as directly inside the entrances you are greeted by a portion of a life-sized schooner and some educational material about exploration into the vast oceans around the world.



Inside this building you will find Rodrigues Fruit Bats, Bali Mynah, Galago, Rock Hyrax, San Esteban Chuckwalla, among other species found mostly in the New World, but also some indoor holding for meerkats and ring-tailed lemurs. I appreciated a focus on mostly lesser-known species in this building, but also a different approach than just a reptile house. I think the educational aspect here is superb and the signage is excellent in here. This is a far cry from the fact this building used to hold most of the zoo's animal collection (similar to the Kansas City Zoo and their now Tropics Building) and held large carnivores including lions and tigers!

Directly adjacent to this building is an island for ring-tailed lemurs and while out of the ordinary, I really like this exhibit. The island itself is densely planted with foliage and features a light tower in the middle. Even though one would not associate light towers with ring-tailed lemurs, the lemurs used this structure as enrichment, climbing up and down constantly. Another feature that draws your attention is a partially shipwrecked boat named the Ada Mae, after a former commissioner of Pueblo's daughter. While it may seem tacky to some, to me it makes this exhibit unique in my opinion. I've seen lots of exhibits over my life, and I can guarantee you that I will always remember this exhibit.





The final portion of this zoo continues the string of older exhibits built prior to 1940. There are old Works Progress Administration "Bear Pits" that used to be the typical zoo enclosure, except these are very well planted, either by humans or naturally occurring plants that have taken hold. Two of the four bear pits are vacant, but the other two are home to Bald Eagles. The other structure in this part of the zoo is the old Tropical Bird House, now is call World of Color and is yet another slightly different take on a reptile house. Inside you will find reptiles of course, but also some birds and a couple fish tanks. Pretty standard fare in here, and you can definitely tell this is an older building as I'm pretty sure there was no air conditioning here, it had to be over 85 degrees in this building when I was there!

As you make your way back to the front of the zoo, I'd be remiss not to mention a pretty good North American River Otter exhibit along the main path, and also don't forget to stop into the main Education Building (part of the entrance complex) as visitors have access to the animal ambassador room that houses terrariums for various reptiles and smaller mammals that one would typically associate with being ambassador species.

Yet again, another pleasant little zoo, but this one you can definitely feel the age. I'm not entirely sure what this zoo has planned for the future, but that becomes an interesting proposition considering that a lot of structures here are nationally protected. After this zoo though, I will be covering a couple zoos that definitely up the ante from what I've posted about so far.

 

The Islands of Life building sounds like a really cool exhibit for a smaller zoo! About how long did it take to see the whole place?

I know you'll probably get to bigger zoos at some point - sounds like maybe even tomorrow - but for what it's worth I'm really enjoying the reviews of these lesser-known zoo blips.

 

It took us about 2 and half hours I think. We did eat at the zoo as well since we came in hot from the road without stopping prior. Glad you are enjoying it so far. I do have a pretty good mix of big and small zoos yet to come!

 

Thanks for another great review! Rolling Hills (2012), Sunset (2012) and Pueblo (2014) are all zoos that I saw years ago and in truth there doesn't seem to have been very many changes since my visits. That's the nature of smaller zoos, although they've each added a few exhibits here and there and that's pleasing to see. Any kind of progress is a bonus for zoos that are short on funding.

Rolling Hills is a lot of flat, nondescript acreage, Sunset is a small but heavily sloped zoo, and Pueblo is perhaps the most memorable due to its historic sections. I'll add a few photos to this message just to illustrate my point. Hopefully @MGolka doesn't mind! His reviews are giving me a little dose of nostalgia.

Here are some of my photos of Pueblo Zoo from 2014.

The Islands of Life building opened in 1939:



The historic bear pits were built between 1935 and 1936. Here's an image of the outer wall:



The Reptile House with gorgeous stonework:



An overgrown bear grotto that was a Golden Eagle exhibit in 2014:

 

I don’t mind at all! I tried to limit the amount of photos I include, but I loved all the old stone work of these buildings. It truly takes you back in time to a different age. In the now modern times with shiny new things, it really makes you just wonder how some of these structures continue to stand after nearly 80 years.

 

Stop Four - Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

While staying the The Springs, one has to visit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, right? This honestly was THE reason why we decided to head to Colorado for Memorial Day weekend. While this zoo has been on the up and up for a little bit now, but it was a couple of absolute rarities that made this place somewhere that I wanted to get to as soon as possible: the Asiatic Black Bear and of course the Mountain Tapir.

Earlier in 2022, I read news that one of the two remaining Mountain Tapirs at this zoo passed away, making me very eager to get here as soon as I can as I'm a huge tapir enthusiast. When discussing travel plans with my wife, we knew that Colorado would be visited at some point in 2022, just at what point was the question. I'm glad that we got here when we did. Doing a little bit more research, I convinced my wife that we ought to do the "Tapir Experience" offered by the zoo, that at this point it was worth the cost, and would most likely be a once in a lifetime experience (more on this later). So I contacted the zoo in late April and got it set up for the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and it was set.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has been covered on this site a lot more than the prior three zoos in this thread, and for good reason. A lot of their new developments are extremely top notch, and they are updating a lot of their older exhibits. Other than the newer exhibits, this zoo is by far one of the most unique in the country as it is situated on the literal side of a mountain. As much as anyone tries to describe the elevation difference from the entrance to the highest point of the zoo, it will not do it justice. Case in point, I was in the middle tier of the zoo where all the restaurants are and had to walk pretty quickly/almost jog back to the entrance to check in for my encounter as it really wasn't clear who to talk to (the directions given must not have made it to the entrance gate attendants), and back up and I was completely out of breath. Obviously not a mountaineer, but I'm not too out of shape either. For instance, the photo below is about 2/3 of the way up the hill to this middle part of the zoo, and there is just as much relief below to the entrance. The main path in the restaurant plaza is equal to the elevation of the floor of that restaurant that is in the middle of the photo. That is about 30 feet above the path in this photo. By the way, that restaurant has barbecue and was our chosen spot for lunch, which provides fantastic views of The Springs below you.



With our experience scheduled for early afternoon, we took advantage of entering the zoo first in the morning to cover most of the zoo prior to that encounter. We started at Water's Edge: Africa and it is as good as advertised. The use of space around the path was inconspicuous at first, but turned out to be additional wandering space for African Penguins, as we later found out as a couple were out and about which allows guests to get super close to these animals. The rest of the complex is fantastic, and as discussed in other threads, the hippo exhibits do not rely on underwater viewing for "wow" factors. I only really have two minor quibbles about this exhibit complex. First, I'm not sure why some zoos have started to add Guinea Pigs as exhibit animals (I guess for kids?), but also not sure why the zoo would put them here. Second, the best views of the yard that held newborn Omo and his mother (active grazing on our visit), were along an adventure path that ended in a dead end that you had to go back through which results in a fair amount of back tracking. However, after defeating this path twice, I felt like I had conquered the Aggro-Crag (all you 90s Nickelodeon watchers know what I'm talking about).

Water's Edge: Africa also provides the only visitor access to Primate World, one of the older parts of the zoo. I'm glad I got to experience this part of the zoo as it has been announced that changes are coming to this area of the zoo. I found this complex to be two sides of a coin, the outdoor exhibits are good to great, but the indoor exhibits are some of the more dated sections of the zoo. I got very heavy Omaha's Cat Complex vibes from the inside portion of this building, and yes, this is not the way things are built these days, I find buildings like this as historical relics that show how far exhibitry has come. With such great outdoor exhibits, and how interesting it is to see Western Lowland Gorillas wandering around conifers, I pretty much looked at the inside of the building as a look at the inside holding areas behind the scenes, not as true indoor exhibits.

Interspersed between Water's Edge: Africa and the next major exhibit as you continue to ascend the mountain through the restaurant hub in one of the middle tiers of the zoo, you will come across a massive domestic goat yard will tons of climbing paths and platforms, as well as the animal ambassador building called The Loft. The most interesting thing I learned in The Loft is that the zoo's beaver (in a smaller exhibit across from the barbecue restaurant) is allergic to wood. Imagine that! A beaver that is allergic to WOOD!

The next major exhibit we went through was Rocky Mountain Wild, and for me who doesn't get as excited about North American species as much as exotic species, this complex was awesome. Really the only exhibit that was difficult to view, which made it hard to really gauge the size and/or photograph was one for mountain lions. This exhibit had a portion in a tunnel, and while a really neat concept, this tunnel was packed with people, it was like 90 degrees in here, and the glare was absolutely blinding. My photo below reduced a lot of the glare and brightness, however. I would advise visiting this later in the day than in the middle of the day.



The rest of the exhibits in Rocky Mountain Wild were all really well done. The Moose exhibit gives you multiple viewing opportunities as the guest walkway surrounds about 75% of the exhibit, the Mexican Wolf exhibit is huge which makes it sometimes difficult to spot the canines, but the show stealer of all of these in my opinion is the Grizzly Bear exhibits, especially the one with the viewing shelter with massive windows set against massive boulders. My wife and I were in the shelter looking for one of the bears, and then BAM, on top of the massive rock, we got one of the more awesome views I feel you could get of these bears.



Just a note to any visitors who haven't been here, in order to get to the bear exhibits, you must climb a pretty tall tower (there is an elevator, but it was not working on our visit) to and take a boardwalk to get back to them. It is a very scenic walk along the boardwalk and is totally worth it, pay attention to the sides of the walk and you can find other birds of prey and backstage holding of Canadian Lynx.

After Rocky Mountain Wild, there is another complex adjacent to here called Asian Highlands and again has some very good exhibits for Amur Tiger, Pallas' Cat, Amur Leopard, and Snow Leopard. My one suggestion to this area is for the Snow Leopard and the Amur Leopard to switch habitats, and this might happen as it looks like you can rotate the two. The Amur Leopard habitat on my visit was essentially a tall rock face that would be perfect for Snow Leopard, and there was not as much elevation difference, or at least not as stark, in the Snow Leopard exhibit that was there on my visit.

The next portion of our visit is everyone's favorite reptile house (gauging by how much everyone talks about it on this site ), the Scutes Family Gallery. Yes, I am aware of how of a scalding hot topic this building is, and honestly, after setting my own eyes upon it, I found it very interesting and not as terrible as I feared. Now don't get me wrong, I am not an expert when it comes to reptile husbandry, but most of the exhibits seemed like they were fine except for a couple of gecko exhibits. I understand that when this place originally opened, there was little to no substrate or very little natural things in the terrariums, but that isn't the case for almost all of the terrariums now. While I don't prefer to see reptiles in this fashion, it was VERY different and I could tell by the many other guests in the building that people were pretty engaged in actually seeing the various reptiles, instead as in other zoos where most people give up looking for said reptiles after a few seconds of looking at dense foliage or super rocky terrain. My wife was super happy as all the snakes (except for the Burmese Python) was confined to their own room within the building as she is super afraid of them, and this was a nice touch by the zoo to recognize snakes aren't for everyone. So I take it for what it is, very different than the norm, while not my preference, but not as terrible as I was expecting.

The Australia Walkabout here is a little different than most zoos I've been to in that the terrain is very different than similar exhibits around the country, and this one has the rare Australian species, the American Alligator! I'm not really sure why there is an alligator as part of this exhibit, must have been there previously and just sort of incorporated it, but it is odd. I will say that this exhibit does provide some awesome Instagram moments for its inhabitants. I fully expect a Red-necked Wallaby to become a social media influencer within the next year or so due to this exhibit!


"THIS IS MY INSTAGRAM WALL!"

After getting through the Australian Walkabout section, it was time for our Tapir Experience and looking back on it, I'm extremely glad we did it when we did. Unknown to us until we arrived to meet Cofan, the last Mountain Tapir at the zoo, there was some doubt that our meet and greet with this rare ungulate would happen. We were informed that only a day before our scheduled encounter, Cofan was undergoing tests for ringworm and his test came back negative, allowing for our experience to happen. We got to spend around 40 minutes with this critically endangered species and had a great talk about mountain tapirs with the keeper. We learned a lot, fed him plenty, and got what they call "tapir hand", essentially imagine petting a dog and getting dandruff all over your hands! I will say, the fur of a mountain tapir is a lot more scruffy than soft as I had imagined with it being also being called the "woolly tapir". Sadly, this was truly a once in a lifetime experience as Cofan passed away in the last couple of months. It is a moment I know my wife and I will not forget.



I am curious now as to what will happen of this portion of the zoo that included the Mountain Tapir habitat, as well as the old monkey house (a massive dirt patch currently), and the current Asiatic Black Bear grottos. We spotted one bear in the back corner of one of the exhibits, wasn't able to really get a good look at it. The mountain tapir and the bear exhibits are some of the oldest and aged exhibits at the zoo and their days are definitely numbered. I have no doubt with the current trajectory of this zoo that whatever comes to fill these spaces will be terrific.

The last part of the zoo we visited was essentially the lower part of the zoo that includes the African Rift Valley and an extended area up the hill with Eastern Black Rhinos and African Elephants. The rhino/elephant portion is quite the trek up from the rest of the African Rift Valley, and navigating the elevation difference between the two is one of the best African Lion exhibits I've seen, and I see Omaha's all the time. I love that you get viewing from both above and below of the massive relief of this exhibit. The lions were making good use of the higher portion of the exhibit on this day, overlooking the valley area containing Giraffe, Zebra, Okapi, and others. The African Elephant exhibit was also well done in my opinion and gives some of the most unique views of elephants you will find this side of the world.



The view going down into the African Rift Valley is also spectacular, as you not only see down on the multiple exhibits below, but you can also see Colorado Springs as well. I know that Cheyenne Mountain Zoo specializes in giraffe, and boy do they have quite the tower of giraffes. It is almost comical how many that they have, and they are extremely popular with guests as tons of people were lining the exhibit feeding all of them.



At the end of the day, we took the skylift that takes you a good distance up the mountain (not to the top), and while there are no animal exhibits up there, you get some fantastic views of the valley below you.

As noted in @pachyderm pro's 50 Must See Zoos in the US thread, this is absolutely one of the tops in the country and definitely worth going out of your way to see. The unique setting is unlike anywhere you will find in the US, and the quality is pretty high for almost the entire zoo with more improvements on the way. What stood out to me was how cleverly and efficiently the zoo uses the terrain given to them. They use the elevation difference as a huge advantage and makes almost every exhibit space interesting from both a visitor's perspective, but also from their inhabitants' perspective. This quickly became one of my favorite zoos I have visited and certainly I won't ever forget that we got to spend time with one of the few remaining mountain tapirs left on the continent.

 

Excellent report on one of America's most fascinating zoological parks. No zoo in the country makes better use of their unconventional location and it really has improved quite a lot in the last few years with the removal of the primate and aquatic buildings and addition of Water's Edge. There are a ton of smaller projects in the works right now which will help make the zoo easier to navigate as well as adding some new exhibits. If it continues at the current rate of development, this is will continue to be a zoo on the rise for years to come. Do you happen to have some additional photos you could upload to the media gallery? The zoo is tragically underrepresented on this site and any additional content would be welcome.

As a fellow tapir enthusiast, I envy your experience with the mountain tapir. It's a tragedy that this wonderful species is well on it's way out. Hopefully I'll be able to get to Los Angeles before their animals pass on, but regardless the encounter you had really was once in a lifetime.

 

I do have a ton of photos from my trip. I hadn’t yet parsed through the gallery for the zoo to see what there is for photos, I did figure it being a more well known zoo it would be fairly up to date. But I will go back and see what gaps I can fill in.